The impact of fomo on purchase likelihood in the context of flash sale on the e-commerce platform: Range on young Vietnamese consumers

Abstract

Purpose: FOMO (Fear of missing out) is becoming more prevalent among young people as a result of the Internet's expansion, especially social media. Besides, FOMO has a substantial effect on the purchase intention of consumers, so many e-commerce platforms recently apply the potential FOMO appeals in order to boost sales, especially during flash sales. Therefore, this research aims to examine the impact of FOMO appeals on purchase likelihood in the context of Flash Sale on the e-commerce platforms: range of Vietnamese young consumers. Research design/data/methodology: The SOR theory, PAD theory and Regret theory are used to explain the relationship between the factors affecting FOMO and the post- influenced consumer response process. Collected data are processed by tests and regression models in SPSS. Our study collected 251 responses from Vietnamese young customers between 16 and 30 years old, and after filtering, 227 answers were used for further analysis. Findings: Our results revealed that FOMO is significantly affected by both Limited Quantity and Limited Time Scarcity, while Economic Benefits have no influence on it. Furthermore, the findings show that Anticipated Elation mediates the connection between FOMO and Purchase Likelihood, but Anticipated Expense Regret’s mediation role was not at all important. Conclusions: Our findings show that the characteristics of flash sales exert remarkable influence on FOMO, while purchase-related emotional feelings mediate partially the impact of FOMO appeal on purchase intention. In order to increase the growth rate, e- commerce businesses should consider applying factors to raise FOMO of young customers during the flash sale.